The Edge rates Tom Lawton’s strategy book as best on the market

The Edge, official magazine of the Institute of Leadership and Management, gave top marks to Breakout Strategy, and suggested it was more relevant to professional managers than the bestselling Blue Ocean Strategy book.

The Edge, official magazine of the Institute of Leadership and Management, gave top marks to Breakout Strategy, and suggested it was more relevant to professional managers than the bestselling Blue Ocean Strategy book.

Isn't a systematic approach to market triumph what every business wants, and what every strategy is designed to deliver? Surprisingly, companies that explicitly set out to excel are remarkably few and far between. Those that do it in a logical and consistent way are even fewer and their names instantly recognised as a result. Companies like IKEA, Google, Starbucks, Samsung and Tesco.

In Breakout Strategy: Meeting the Challenge of Double Digit Growth (February 2007 McGraw-Hill), strategy and leadership expert Thomas Lawton of Tanaka Business School has compiled the tools that every manager needs to use if they are to achieve the maximum potential of their company. Based on five years of research and work with leaders in companies in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia, it presents strategies that are realistic, field tested, and within reach of every management team.  The key ingredient is managers who are fired up for change but lacking the essential toolkit that can lead to winning positions in any industry. 

There are four main breakout strategies, each of which is backed up by a set of actionable steps managers can take to execute on the strategy:

1.  Taking by Storm. 
Think Cisco in the early days, creating a new type of technology that blew away existing applications.  Or Google, the archetypal band of Silicon Valley smart guys that made "Search" the most exciting word on Wall Street.  Each of these companies started in a weak, even nonexistent, position in their markets, took an original idea, and built a company around it

2.  Expanding Horizons. 
These companies have rapidly expanded from a narrow or regional base to become broad, national or international concerns.  It's is all about leveraging your position in one market to many others, taking advantage of a blossoming brand name (Starbucks), deep knowledge (CEMEX), or both (Toyota). 

3.  Laggard to Leader. 
Every industry has its once proud, even dominant, companies that seem to sit by while new competitors change the rules of the game on them. But "laggards to leaders" - such as Harley Davidson and Adidas - have risen back up from the depths - and when you isolate their strategic turnarounds you find the breakout toolkit in action. 

4.  Shifting Shape. 
Perhaps the most unusual of all, the shape-shifting company is one that, even when it is still going strong, chooses to transform its business so that when the changes come they will be one step ahead, again.  Apple shifted from Mac as outlier to iPod as core before the traditional consumer electronic companies even knew what was happening. Gallo moved upscale in advance of a horde of low-priced wines from all over the world. Samsung rose from second-tier low-cost player to world-class brand.  These companies have positioned themselves to take advantage of the changes coming in their marketplace.

Having defined these 'breakout' models, the authors explain that managers can put their chosen strategy into sustainable practice, by introducing and adhering to five key initiatives:

* Create a workable vision by understanding the needs and aspirations of your company
* Face customers with a value proposition that covers all the important bases
* Align what the business does with what the customer truly desires
* Balance the people and process sides of the business to deliver on promises
* Liberate through leadership the energies of your strategy's toughest critic - those who work within the business.

It isn't easy, but numerous companies around the world have made this work.  eBay did it in online commerce, Gucci did it in fashion, Tesco did it in supermarkets, and Fidelity did it in financial services.  Breakout Strategy offers best practice examples, hands-on and proven tools, and an inspirational reality-based message that breakout is absolutely possible.